McClure won the Men's City Amateur tournament a then-record 12 times between 1938 and 1973.

Runnels has since passed that mark — he won No. 18 last year at Richmond Elks — but he still remembers just how good the player he idolized was when it came to the city's golf courses.

"I never thought I would get to that level when I was young. Bill was so good," Runnels said.

Runnels is the same age as McClure's son, Kevin. He recalled golfing with the McClures, and how impressed he was with the man he called "the king of Richmond golf."

"It was just amazing how good we thought he was, and he was," Runnels said.

Runnels tied McClure's record with his City Am victory in 2004, then passed it in 2007 with No. 13.

Winning more City Am championships than his golfing idol was not something Runnels ever considered.

"It's nothing that I aspired to do. It was nothing that I thought I could ever do," Runnels said.

Runnels and McClure both were inducted in the Richmond Golf Hall of Fame in 2000, along with two more past city champions, Gene Coulter (1949, 1950, 1951, 1956, 1957) and Dave Thurman (1968, 1969, 1971, 1972, 1975, 1981, 1982, 1984), as well as the 1941 Richmond High School state championship team.

Coulter was the tournament's first back-to-back-to-back winner (1949-1951). McClure then tied that feat with consecutive victories from 1953-55.

"He was a big influence on me wanting to play and how the game should be played," Runnels said of McClure. "He was a gentleman. He just approached the game the way it should be. It just rubbed off on me."

With a week to go until teeing off to determine the latest champion, Runnels has dominated the past decade of city tournaments.

He's won seven of the past 10 tournaments, and put together four straight victories from 2010-13.

Jeff Mullin won twice in that time frame (2006 and 2009), while C.D. Hockersmith won a three-hole playoff with Runnels in 2005.

"It's probably one of the oldest amateur golf tournaments in Indiana. There is some great history," Mullin said.